NEW DELHI: Cometh the hour, cometh the man! The Pawan Munjal that the media in the Capital got to meet on Monday morning was a different man - not the usually reticent, suit-attired, guarded personality. This time, the chief of the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer, by volume was oozing confidence with his shirt sleeves rolled-up, and aggressive body language, which easily conveyed that he was ready to take on the competition.

While announcing Hero MotoCorp's first-ever equity purchase in an overseas company - a 49.2% stake for US$25 million in its US-based technology partner Erik Buell Racing (EBR) - Munjal also outlined a slew of aggressive plans that he has already initiated - the imminent foray into Africa with assembly lines, spreading operations in more countries in Latin America, multiple product launches leading up to the festive season, and a big splash in the coming Auto Expo in Delhi in February 2014.

The big news of the day was the equity purchase by Hero in EBR. ET on February 27, 2012 was the first to report the likelihood of Hero picking up stake in American bike company.The company on Monday announced that the first tranche of $15 million has already been invested by HMCL, while the second tranche of $10 million will be invested within the next nine months.

The investment in EBR is being done through Hero MotoCorp's newly-incorporated wholly-owned American subsidiary - HMCL (NA). Hero MotoCorp will now have representations on the EBR board with two directors and one observer. However, there will be no organizational changes at EBR, and Erik Buell will continue to be its Chairman and CEO.

This time, Pawan was candid enough to say that he is definitely looking at both organic as well as inorganic options for growth. In an exclusive interview to ET immediately after making the announcement, he said "Yes, definitely, I am always looking out (for further overseas acquisitions)...I am constantly travelling around the globe, keeping my mind open. If a good opportunity comes our way, I will certainly look at it."

"In terms of expanding our global footprint, we are going to commence our operations in Africa - with launches in Kenya, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso - very soon. We will also shortly be launching in Peru and Ecuador in Latin America. This will be in addition to Colombia where we already have our presence," he said.

Hero is looking at setting up assembly in Africa and Latin America. "The assembly in Colombia would possibly come up sometime by the middle of next year," Munjal said.

On new launches, he said that the first of the new launches - variants and refreshes on existing platforms - will be launched around the festive season this year, although 'the completely new model will come up in calendar year 2014'.

"Wait till Auto Expo next year in Delhi, you will see a lot of new stuff from us," said Munjal.

"The equity partnership with EBR is reflective of our long-term vision of transforming Hero MotoCorp to a truly global two-wheeler major with footprints spread across continents, offering a wide range of technologically-advanced two-wheelers. As we go on spreading our footprint in new international markets, we will look at having extended centres of our own R&D at multiple locations around the world, developing two-wheelers for our global customers. Our fully-owned new overseas subsidiaries such as the one in the US and in Netherlands will play important roles in our future overseas acquisitions and investments," he added.